Celebrating this old team sport, which first emerged in England around the 1840s, has nowadays over 2.5 million professionals and around 7 million registered players – amateurs. The game became globally adopted quickly after its legislation and had a growing legion of admirers worldwide.
The online version of the game is played on a classical 5×3 field with 243 ways of dangerous collisions, which come in waves (avalanche mechanism), with Medium Variance and 96.52% of RTP. The game is built with Stacked Wilds, Free Spins with progressive multipliers, and a solid maximum win of 120 000 coins (i.e. 2400x the total bet via max stake of 50 CAD).
Check this bouncing game for free in the DEMO version on our site. No registration is needed.
Personal testers’ opinion about Rugby Star slot
We are no big rugby fans, but this dynamic slot grew our interest occasionally. The design and the graphics are outdated, no doubt about, but we eagerly prefer 243 win ways games, thinking they are very profitable, with oftentimes high hit frequency (here approximately 30%), and besides, in this rugby game, we were multiple times surprised by the Wild Pass feature, delivering decent payouts (near 30x the total bet) in the main game. We were also delighted to see the avalanche function implemented in both: main spins and Free Spins.
However, we were disgruntled by the cheap values at the paytable (with only 1 exclusion – the rugby ball – Bonus Scatter – carrying 250x the total bet value for 5OAK). And testing the game with bonus money, we established that it is not fit to complete the wagering requirements – it scored just 4.29 (out of 10) index points.
Another negative we reckon is the lack of multipliers for consecutive avalanche waves (cascades) and the drawn-out period of waiting for the bonus round (statistically to appear after 144-145 spins).
- This game is a direct reskin of the Basketball Star slot (Microgaming 2015). Both games show the same basic math model and attributes—just a different sport and design.
- One colleague recently called Microgaming – the King of Cloning. We concur with this statement cause of the countless clone/reskin titles they published throughout the years, all of which are examples of cutting corners, proceeding only like a business (constant revenue growth with effective cost-saving), forgetting what a truly innovative industry giant should’ve done to remain in its leading position – deliver original cutting-edge products.
- Still, the supremacy of his games is rash when cloning/reskinning serves as a surrogate for true novelty! And that has less to do with their co-partners JFTW, Old Skool, Triple Edge, Rabcat, Neon Valley, and Fortune Factory. We believe those subsidiaries were forced into using this clone/reskin strategy. After all, Microgaming was doing it long before striking contracts with these newer firms. Regardless, we remain firm with our standpoint that not the total number of slots is what makes one developer ingenious to the core.
- For those who didn’t really follow the sport slots clone line of Microgaming (they all resemble in features, volatility, RTP, and most of the payouts), here are the brief figures:
Hidden parameters of Rugby Star slot (data from the testing team)
- The frequency of triggering the bonus is statistically, every 144th spin (0,69%).
- The probability of a hit (any winning) is 30,13%.
- The distribution of the winnings is 67% in the usual spins and 33% in the bonus feature.
- The maximum payout during the tests was 205x.
- The average winning from the bonus was 53x.
- Volatility is 8,36 out of 20 (average).
- The cycle length is average.
- The rating of the slot machine for the wagering is 4,29 out of 10.
- RTP of 96,52% allows getting a positive mathematical expectation at the casino.
Bonus Features
- Wild Pass – In the base game only, reels 2, 3, and 4 can turn into Wild reels by random bringing sure win.
- Rolling Reels – In both base and bonus spins is applied avalanche/cascade gameplay. Basically means dissolving the winning combinations, providing room for new rugby icons to fall, possibly generating new winning formations.
- Free Spins – Landing 3+ rugby balls – Bonus Scatters will launch up to 25 Free Spins. In this mode, with each cascade of the Rolling Reels, a Multiplier is attached to the wins, progressing with each consecutive win from x2 up to x10.
Settings
- Number of reels – 5
- Number of payouts – 243
- The spin bet is from 0.50 to 50
- Maximum winning for the spin – x12500 (five goals for rugby)
- Maximum winnings in the bonus – 120,000 coins (in the free spins mode)
- Wild symbol – yes (logo of the slot machine)
- Scatter – yes (Rugby ball)
- Free spins – yes (three or more Scatters will give 15, 20 or 25 free spins with the Rolling Reels feature and the multiplier of up to x10)
- The expected payout percentage in this slot is 96.52%, giving you a great opportunity to increase your welfare.
